SPECIAL REPORT: Jigawa villagers link declining farming output, urban drift to abandonment of dam

Musa Ado is sad that his village no longer retains its young men. Every year, they migrate to Lagos, Port-Harcourt and other southern Nigerian cities for menial jobs, he said ruefully in March, when PREMIUM TIMES’s reporter met him in the village.

Mr Ado is the head of Warwade, a rural community about 16 kilometres from Dutse, the capital of Jigawa State in north-west Nigeria. The Warwade Dam is at the centre of economic activities in the village and surrounding area. He said farming was lucrative until the dam became decrepit due to poor maintenance and abandoned water channels.

The village head of Warwade Community, Musa Ado.

“The dam was started in 1970 by the then governor of old Kano State, Audu Bako, but was completed and commissioned in 1977 by the late Mr Bako’s successor, Sani Bello,” Mr Ado continued.

“Initially, it was meant to supply Dutse, Jahun and Kiyawa towns with potable water, but the old Kano State government later introduced irrigation farming in the area and provided free irrigation equipment from 1979 to the early 1980s. The government employed village extension advisers to teach farmers irrigation-based farming and introduced them to various farm inputs, skills and varieties of seeds.

“We produced rice, wheat, onions, vegetables and other crops. Farmers were taken out to other places to learn about irrigation systems. A group of 10 farmers was assigned to one village extension adviser, and farming activities improved. The residents were happy and settled, and the economic standard of the farmers was uplifted. We supplied 80 per cent of the food in Dutse and its environs (under the old Kano State).”

Mr Ado said the rehabilitation of the dam would again facilitate irrigation farming, enhance fishing, provide economic opportunities for young people and stem urban drift in the area.

The village head said successive administrations in the state promised to rehabilitate the dam but have yet to do so. He also explained why other government schemes to boost agricultural production failed.

“The government made a big mistake by ignoring the real farmers regarding agricultural interventions,” he said. “The government introduced farmers’ cooperatives, but the membership is purely political; real farmers are not being considered.”

‘Our youths migrating to Lagos, Port Harcourt’

According to Mr Ado, the abandonment of dams has impaired the livelihoods of thousands of people living in riverine areas of Jigawa State like Warwade, Siyasiya, Sabon Garin Alhaji, Jigawar Sajo, Sakwayal and Jidawa. Many residents depend on dams for irrigation and fishing as their economic activities.

The abandonment of the dam and others in Jigawa has also worsened poverty in the state. The multidimensional poverty report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for 2022 rated Jigawa as the third poorest state in Nigeria.

Abandoned water channel

“The abandonment of the irrigation facility has made our community poor due to a lack of jobs. Thousands of our youths have migrated to Lagos and Port Harcourt for greener pastures. We don’t even know where some of the youth are. These are some of the negative impacts of abandoning the irrigation facility,” Mr Ado said.

PREMIUM TIMES found that the Warwade Dam has not been expanded since its construction decades ago. The government started a project to construct water channels for irrigation on both sides of the dam for year-round farming, but the expansion project was abandoned.

The state’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Muttaka Namadi, declined to comment on the amount spent on the rehabilitation and why it was abandoned.

The official, however, identified nine other abandoned dams across the state. He said Governor Umar Namadi’s administration has made provisions in the 2024 budget to rehabilitate many dams. These include Kafin-gana dam, Koda dam, Galala dam; Gwaram dam, Dambo dam; Basirka dam, Dagwalo dam; Hiyan Warde dam, and Sakwawa dam.

Residents said rehabilitating the dams would prevent floods, which caused havoc in the area in previous years.

A farmer in Warwade, Muhammadu Mansur, said the water channel was supposed to extend 15 kilometres to areas surrounding the dam. He said if the dam is rehabilitated, about two million people stand to benefit from the irrigation system.

“The project stopped halfway without any reasons given to the locals. There are large swathes of farmland in the hinterland where farmers can cultivate tomatoes, onions, wheat and rice if the water channel is completed,” Mr Mansur said.

Abandoned water channel

“We appeal to the new governor (Mr Namadi) to revisit the work and ensure that the project is complete to help us,” the farmer said.

While taking our reporter on a tour of a part of the abandoned project, Mr Mansur opened one of the abandoned water routes. He explained that the cost of production would be reduced if farmers could open the water channels to wet their farms without using generators.

According to the official bulletin of the state’s agriculture ministry, over 80 per cent of the inhabitants of Jigawa State are engaged in agriculture. However, public expenditure does not prioritise the sector, a PREMIUM TIMES’ review of the state’s budget documents revealed.

The state government allotted only 5.4 per cent of its 2019 budget to agriculture, despite claiming agriculture as a focus area.

In its change agenda, the administration of former Governor Badaru Abubakar pledged to develop agriculture by strengthening research and extension services. It also promised to irrigate more land, deepen mechanisation, promote investments and create more opportunities in the sector.

Abandoned water channel

The state’s budgets from 2019 to 2023 showed a significant difference of 63 per cent between budgetary allocations and releases to the state’s Ministry of Agriculture. However, a recently released report by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) in collaboration with Dataphyte shows that the agriculture sector got only N370 out of every N1000 budgeted in the four years.

A farmer, Khadija Adamu, said improper water channelling and poor rehabilitation of Warwade Dam contributed to flooding in the area.

“The non-completion of the water channels is costing us a lot. My water pumping generator was stolen, so I now spend about N5,000 daily to hire a generator to wet my farm,” Mrs Adamu said.

“I bought 40 bags of fertiliser last year, and after I applied it, it was washed away by seven days of non-stop rain, which made the dam overflow. I could have harvested at least 300 bags of paddy rice but for the disaster.

“During the dry season, I plant wheat, tomatoes, and vegetables besides rice. But things are becoming increasingly difficult for farmers without government interventions. After the flood disaster, the government collected the details of the affected farmers, but nothing has been done to assist us,” she said.

Mrs Adamu

Mrs Adamu said she has been “actively practising agriculture” for 15 years but had never received the government’s support. She appealed to the authorities to complete the water channels at the Warwade Dam.

Salamatu Abdullahi inherited a large parcel of land from her late father on the western side of the dam. She plans to participate in irrigation farming “if the government completes the abandoned project.” She hoped that the water channels would flow towards her farm, too.

Heavy floods destroyed farmlands and crops across Jigawa State in 2023, worsening the plight of farmers.

Handmade water channel

Rehabilitation Project

A farmer, Ya’u Shehu, said farmers in the area hope the irrigation project will be completed soon.

“As the project is abandoned halfway, the water flow is too much at a particular place and is affecting crop’s maturity because of the water concentration while farmers in the hinterland do not have water due to improper channelling.

“Our appeal to the government is to complete the project because the abandonment is destroying the existing local irrigation system,” he said.

Another farmer, Sabo Gidan-Kanya, made the same appeal when interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES.

“We just saw them (contractors) working on the water channel, and suddenly, they pulled out from the site. They never told us anything before starting the project, so we couldn’t ask them why they were leaving.”

Malam Sabo Gidan Kanya

‘Why Jigawa needs irrigation facilities’

Ahmed Ilallah, the state lead of Green and Environmental Project Initiatives, said rehabilitation of dams across the state could reduce flooding in Jigawa.

“Jigawa is a rural state; more than 80 per cent of the population live in the rural and semi-urban areas. Making agriculture a priority, particularly irrigation farming, is an intelligent way to address the issue of food security.

“With the improvement of the Hadejia Irrigation Scheme under the Hadejia Jama’are River Basin Development Authority in Jigawa Northeast, several interventions by the state and other donors like the Fadama Project, the contributions of irrigation, if expanded across the state, could greatly address the poverty level in the state”, Mr Ilallah said.

Mr Ilallah said developing irrigation facilities across the state would engender economic growth.

“Irrigation farming greatly boosts agricultural output by giving crops consistent water supply, enabling multiple yearly harvests. Some rice farmers in the north-east, where the irrigation system is popular, harvest three times a year. The system raises crop yields and lowers the possibility of drought-related crop failure.

“Farmers are using irrigation farming to help them adjust to the challenges brought on by climate change. Irrigation can help mitigate the effects of altered precipitation patterns and more frequent droughts by offering a more consistent water supply and lessening agriculture’s susceptibility to weather variations,” Mr Ilallah said.

10 dams for rehabilitation – Govt

Muttaka Namadi, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture, told PREMIUM TIMES that the administration was determined to complete the rehabilitation of Warwade Dam.

Mr Namadi said since the project was abandoned before he became commissioner, he could not explain the reason for the abandonment.

However, he said the government plans to rehabilitate ten dams across the state to facilitate irrigation farming.

“The government plans to rehabilitate ten dams in the state, including that of Warwade, to facilitate irrigation farming.

“The irrigation system at Warwade Dam needs to be expanded, and the river needs to be de-silted. The government is working to see the dam come to fruition this year. The government hired experts who are now surveying the ten identified dams, and we have captured them in the budget.

“For the Warwade Dam, there is a particular issue with the soil, but we have identified the problem, and we have a strategy to make the project realistic. The Warwade Dam has been abandoned for several years, but as we came on board, we saw the need to make it usable for the people to benefit,” Mr Namadi said.

This story was supported by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Innovation and Development (CJID).